World Cup final, explosions and fires in Russia: highlights of the day

FIFA World Cup 2022

The Argentine national team won the World Cup, beating France in the final. The match ended with a score of 3:3, and the Latin Americans were stronger in the penalty shootout - 4:2.

The Argentine national team last won the World Cup back in 1986. Instead, France stated this match in the status of the reigning champion — it won the previous world championship in 2018.

Also, this match became a decisive one in the career of the captain of the Argentine national team Lionel Messi. During his career, he won seven "Ballon d'Or" awards, won the Champions League and the Copa America, but he could not become the world champion with his national team before.

Zelenskyy's address

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the world community on the occasion of the World Cup final and announced the convening of a global summit of the "peace formula" to be held in winter.

The Verkhovna Rada confirmed that FIFA refused to show this appeal at the final of the tournament. The head of the Servant of the People faction, David Arakhamia, said that although Qatar (the host of the tournament) supported the idea, FIFA blocked the demonstration of Zelenskyy's appeal.

Deputy Head of the President's Office Mykhailo Podolyak and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba criticized the decision.

"FIFA's refusal ... once again showed hypocrisy under the name 'Sports outside politics'. But we will destroy this Carthage. World sports organizations and functionaries have been hiding behind this phrase for too long. In fact, behind it has always been and is the usual cowardice," Kuleba said.

Fires and explosions in Russia

On the morning of December 18, explosions were heard in the Russian city of Belgorod. Local authorities say that air defenses were operating over the city and the region. One person was killed and eight others were injured.

In Russia's Irkutsk Oblast, an installation at an oil and gas condensate field caught fire. The fire spread over about 1,000 square meters. According to preliminary data, one person was injured in the fire.

And in Chelyabinsk Oblast of the Russian Federation, a fire broke out in the shopping center "Univermag". Visitors were evacuated, and one person was injured.

Russian fakes about the sale of electricity

Ukrenergo warned about the distribution of a fake letter from the head of Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytskyi to the Ministry of Energy about the alleged resumption of electricity exports from Ukraine while the blackouts continue. In this way, propagandists are trying to convince citizens that the power sector is to blame for the outages, not Russian attacks.

"The authors of the fake are in such a hurry that they are addressing the 'board of directors' of Ukrenergo. Although the Ukrainian operator has only a supervisory board and a management board. Russia's operator of the grid has a 'board of directors' from which Ukraine disconnected on February 24 forever," Ukrenergo stressed.